1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for testing and developing products of network computing based on a virtualized cloud for easily developing and testing company's services and products by supporting a standard and testing that allow developing a networking solution including network equipment, network service, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, an interest in an open-source based virtualized cloud is gradually increasing for reasons of cost-saving and operational efficiency. In this way, an information communication technology (ICT) environment nowadays is evolving in a direction of saving costs and constituting an efficient infrastructure by grafting a virtualization technology that utilizes an open source onto an existing hardware-based cloud. Due to developments in the virtualization technology, an existing supplier-centered network infrastructure subordinate to hardware is gradually being modified into a form of equipment based on user-centered software. Attempts to drive hardware-based network computing equipment in a form of a virtual server in a general commercial server through virtualization of network computing equipment are constantly being made for the purpose of achieving many advantages including a decrease in operational cost, continuity of service, a decrease in energy consumption, and flexible operation.
A “cloud” is a computer environment in which information is semi-permanently stored on a server on the Internet unless intentionally deleted and is temporarily stored in a client such as an IT device including a desktop computer, a tablet personal computer, a laptop computer, a net-book, and a smartphone and refers to a computing environment in which all information of a user is stored on a server on the Internet and the information can be used anytime and anywhere through various types of IT devices. Flexibility of a cloud environment is gradually increasing by grafting the virtualization technology onto a physical server based operation method of the past.
In a cloud operation, resources such as servers, storages, and networks are required, and software capable of controlling each of the resources and, furthermore, integrally managing and operating the resources is required. Generally, these requirements are referred to as “cloud operating system (Cloud OS).”
As a cloud computing environment becomes widely used, many software companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and VMware are providing commercial cloud OSes. However, on one hand, with companies leaning toward the open source, an open source cloud OS is being mainly supported by numerous open-source based software companies such as HP and RedHat, and OpenStack is at center stage.
OpenStack is a cloud computing open-source project in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) form and may be viewed as an assembly in which several sub-level open source projects having purposes of controlling available resources of processing, storage spaces, and networking are gathered. Currently, numerous companies are participating in the project.
As an open-source project, operations and developments are performed mainly based on Linux, and anyone can freely participate in the project by orienting toward open design and developments.
Virtualization refers to a technology in which physical features of a computer resource are concealed from ways in which other systems, application systems, and final users interact with the resource. Logical resources are provided to a user by abstracting physical features of a resource, and by this, various advantages in terms of technical management are provided.
Virtualization is proliferating nowadays due to a spread of cloud computing through the Internet and smart terminals and gaining much attention as a vigorous discussion on cloud computing becomes active. Although virtualization is a term that has been used since the 1960's, the importance thereof is further increasing both economically and technically due to the spread of cloud computing. Particularly, the role of ICT, in particular, virtualization, is gradually becoming important in integrating distributed ICT resources of a company and enabling collaborations between workers to improve productivity and mobility due to a spread of smart devices in situations in which a corporate environment rapidly changes and market competition is intensified such that a company cannot survive when the company falls to promptly deal with the market.
This is because, above everything else, access and infrastructure management with respect to computing resources are simplified through virtualization such that the infrastructure can be operated very efficiently. Due to the advantages of virtualization, nowadays, virtualization is not only applied to computer resources like desktop virtualization, server virtualization, and the like but is comprehensively applied to most fields of ICT resources including networks, storages, applications, terminal devices, and so on.
Particularly, network virtualization is a technology that enables an existing networking technology focusing on hardware to be controlled by software means by abstracting computing, server, and network functions. Technologies such as software-defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are settling in as trends of network technologies.
SDN is a technology in which a control function is separated from an existing switch or router and centralized physically or logically, and a traffic transmission operation of a network is controlled and managed using a software(SW)-based controller through an open application programming interface (API). Rather than a virtualization technology, SDN may be viewed as a new network controller capable of controlling network traffic from the center, unlike an existing distributed method, for provision and management of a physical network.
NFV is a technology that virtualizes and uses various software functions required for configuration, control, and management, etc. of a communication network to provide a new network “production environment” for providing low-cost, high-efficiency, and rapid service based on the virtualization technology and is generally executed in an x86-based virtual server. NFV allows a network operator to virtualize existing network hardware equipment through softwarization of network functions and drive the virtualized network functions by embedding the existing network hardware equipment in general-purpose hardware equipment corresponding to a data center, a network node, and subscriber equipment.
For example, although software such as an OS and application programs and hardware were provided together in early-stage computers in the past, as personal computers (PCs) become widely used, various types of OSes such as Windows, Mackintosh, and Linux are operated by being embedded in IBM compatible general-purpose hardware according to a users intention. Likewise, as the NFV advances, various types of software that fit utilization purposes may be installed at general-purpose network equipment, thus expanding beyond existing network equipment in which hardware and software are integrated.
That is, a network function may be implemented by embedding a new software function into a virtual server and the like even without installing new network equipment. Ultimately, NFV allows a network operator to have considerable convenience and save cost in terms of operational management such as network provisioning and failure processing.
Communication service providers who have made efforts to reduce the cost for network operation by removing dependence on particular network equipment vendors and for whom investment cost and operational cost associated with expensive network equipment compared to gradually decreasing revenue have become burdens are behind the advent of the NFV. Particularly, research and development on the NFV are mainly being carried out by mobile communication service providers who bear a relatively high investment cost.
However, a view is dominant in which still more time is seen to be needed for the NFV to be applied to an actual network. An issue in terms of performance is behind the view. Although it is said that there is an advantage in terms of operational management when the NFV is introduced, communication service providers cannot carelessly introduce the NFV since performance capable of substituting existing hardware is not guaranteed. Since stable network operation is important above everything else to communication service providers who operate a commercial network, stability of a network along with the introduction of the NFV must be guaranteed.
Consequently, even though the virtualization technology is said to improve efficiency of system resources and bring convenience in operating a network, predictable performance of a predetermined level compared to an existing hardware-based system has to be guaranteed for the virtualization technology to be applied to an actual network. As one attempt to overcome the performance problem of the virtualization technology, nowadays, a container technology which is a light-weight virtualization technology for more rapid speed and less resource consumption is gaining attention.
A container is a technology for allowing software to be stably operated when the software has moved from one computing environment to another computing environment and is configured using a runtime execution environment in which an application and all dependencies, libraries, other binary and configuration files, etc. required to drive the application are bundled into one package.
Unlike an existing hypervisor-based virtualization technology in which a guest system that may be independently operated from a host system operates on a hypervisor such as VMware, Xen, and Hyper-V that operates on a physical server, the container-based virtualization technology does not virtualize a system but virtualizes an environment capable of driving an application.
Consequently, to operate an application, hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory, etc. is virtualized and used independently between virtual machines while an OS and a library are shared. That is, an OS of a host system and an OS of a guest system may be different in the existing virtualization technology, and, typically, the existing virtualization technology is actually utilized much when using different OSes. In contrast, an OS of a guest system is dependent on an OS of a host system in the container-based virtualization technology.
As a result, the hypervisor-based virtualization technology is a “system” virtualization technology, and the container-based virtualization technology is an “application” virtualization technology.
The trend encouraged by the virtualization technology is predicted to expand in all directions in the network industry from backbone network equipment to an end terminal in the future, and ultimately, a fundamental change is predicted to occur in the conventional network paradigm that has been distinguished by types of media and types of lines.
In this situation, although it is also important to develop a new and innovative network function, securing various types of virtualization network service features by changing an existing network function into a virtualized network function (VNF) is an important component of improving competitiveness. In this regard, an importance of providing a test-and-development apparatus as a testing and developing environment that operates in an open-source based virtualized cloud environment to the maximum number of developers permitted by a system capacity with the highest efficiency of system resources is also being emphasized.